From Little Acorns Grow
by Aleksandryna-Zinnaella
Summary: 14-year-old Korin Oak hates her older brother Gary, so naturally she instantly gets along with his rival. Follow Korin as she travels with Ash, Misty and Brock (because the originals are the best) and discovers what she was missing when she refused to become a Pokemon trainer to avoid her brother. AshXOC, one-sided AshXMisty, and PikachuXJigglypuff.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything publicly recognised. No copyright infringement is intended.**

Chapter One

I smile to myself as I watch a flock of wild Pidgey fly above my head. I twist my feet, upright in the air, so that they form the shape the birds seem to take as they effortlessly glide through the icy February sky. There is no sound, apart from the almost silent breathing of my Bulbasaur, Cabhan, asleep on my stomach. That's why I like like it out here. This clearing is so far from civilisation, even if it's actually only about five miles away from the town. I've never seen anyone here, not even a single Pokemon of any sort. The closest anyone comes to my clearing is the Pidgeys that fly overhead, far enough away that, even when they talk to each other, I can barely hear them.

The weight on my stomach shifts and I raise my head to look forward. Cabhan is awake. He has turned around so that he is staring through the gap between my raised legs. I reach my arms out and lift him up, before pushing myself upright. I notice that Cabhan is growling, and I listen out for what has disturbed him. Voices. Distant, faint, but humans talking. They are too close to my clearing.

"Can you check it out, Cabhan?" I ask in a low whisper, and Cabhan gives me a look that says _Duh, I'm awesome_ and bounds off to see who the people are the moment I put him down. A few minutes later he comes back, a makes a couple of low growling noises that I take to either mean _I don't know them_ or _It's y__our stupid jerk-ass brother_. I swear and pull Cabhan's Pokeball out of my pocket. I hold it out and call him back, before slipping the Pokeball back into my pocket and sprinting out of my clearing and back towards the town._  
_

When I get back onto the concrete and tarmac ground of Pallet town, I slow down slightly, watching where I step so I don't tread on any broken glass. As usual, I'm not wearing shoes, so stepping on glass would tear my feet to pieces, no matter how tough the soles of my feet are. I frown at the usual mutters of 'Dragging the family name through the mud again' and 'Where did her parents go wrong?'. I hear an old lady say 'I knew she was a bad one, but I never thought she was such a tart.' My frown deepens. I may be a lot of things, but I am not a tart. I never wear anything revealing or any make-up. Knowing there must be a reason for the lady to call me that, I look down. My shirt has a chunk missing: it must have got caught on a branch and torn of when I was running through the forest. I use one hand to gather up what remains of my shirt and pull it over my breasts. I know my cheeks are red, not from running for so long but from the embarrasment of having my chest on display without even realising.

After what feels like an eternity, I reach my house and race up the stairs to my bedroom. I let Cabhan out of his Pokeball, as well as letting out Christine, my Jigglypuff. I pull my Samurai Panda t-shirt out of the laundry basket, as well as the only unripped jeans I own and quickly get changed. I undo the messy plait my hair is in and redo it, not even bothering to attempt to tear a brush through it. I leave my room and walk downstairs, and Cabhan and Christine follow me.

I'm just about to walk into the kitchen when a hand grabs my hair.

"You're over an hour late." says my annoying, horrible, stupid, jerk-face brother, Gary, from behind me. I jab my elbow backwards and smirk as he lets go of my plait, gasping. I spin around and glare at him.

"I don't care." I state, and he regains composure. His eyebrow raises.

"You've forgotten," he comments, smiling slightly. "We're going to Grandpa's for dinner." I groan.

"But I have to go and find the torn remains of my Eat Sleep Battle shirt!" I whine, and Gary's amusement instantly turns to anger and concern.

"What happened? Did someone hurt you?" he asks, pulling me into a hug and stroking my hair. The main thing I hate about him is that he always either treats me like dirt or gets over-protective and over-affectionate. He doesn't seem to be capable of being somewhere in the middle.

"No. I was in the forest and my shirt ripped on a branch, I think. I'm not sure. It was there when I got up, but it was mostly gone by the time I got back to town. I didn't notice until some old cow called me a tart." I tell him, pulling away from his tight embrace. He frowns.

"What the hell were you doing in the forest?" he asks, his nose scrunched up as he tries to comprehend the fact that I might go somewhere other than the library.

"I wanted to be alone." I say, shrugging.

"Catch any Pokemon?" Gary asks, and I shake my head.

"You know that's not my thing. I'm fine with Cabhan and Christine, thanks." I answer, and he frowns.

"You know people would like you more if you had Pokemon who can actually fight?" he asks, his eyebrows raised.

"I don't care about people liking me. I'm not you." I snarl, glaring darkly at him. He shakes his head.

"Let's just go. I promised Mum I'd actually get you to Grandpa's this time." he says, and drags me towards the door.

**A/N: Hello! Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! The next chapter will be up soon.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"I haven't seen you in at least a month, Korin. You've grown." Grandpa says as he greets Gary and I at the door.

"She's been spending all her time in the forest lately. She's just left really early in the morning and come back really late every day." Gary explains. Grandpa smiles as he leads us through to the dining room.

"Finally starting to train your Pokemon?" he asks, and I feel an involuntary frown crease my forehead. When I don't respond, Grandpa looks round at me. I shake my head. He sighs at my expression. "You really should give it a go, just once. You'll enjoy it, I'm sure." he says, and I shake my head again.

"I'll despise it, I'm sure." I respond, mimicking his tone.

"But you would be so good at it! You've seen how talented Gary is, and the two of you are more alike than you know." Grandpa says, and smiles at the identical disgusted expressions on our faces. We reach the dining room and Grandpa gestures for Gary and I to sit down. We do, as far as possible from each other, as Grandpa goes to get dinner out of the oven.

Grandpa comes back a minute later, carrying two trays, one with roast potatoes and the other with other roast vegetables. He frowns when he sees where Gary and I are sitting, but doesn't comment as he goes to get the plates with the roast beef. He brings them back, places them in front of us and sits down between us at an equal distance.

"Move along and sit a bit closer together. There's no need to pretend you don't know each other." he sighs. Gary slides his chair and plate along to sit next to Grandpa. Grandpa looks expectantly at me. I sigh and move across to sit beside him. "That's better." I frown and stab the beef on my plate, before reaching across and piling roast potatoes onto my plate, as well as other vegetables. I reach across and slap Gary's hand away from the gravy, taking it myself and pouring at least three quarters of what's in the jug on my dinner.

"Hey! Don't take all the gravy for yourself!" Gary says, reaching across and trying to grab it out of my hand. I turn to Grandpa.

"Would you like some gravy?" I ask him innocently, and I can tell from his face that he knows I'm only trying to annoy Gary.

"Let Gary have some first." he says, so I pour a bit more on my plate before handing it to Gary. He frowns when he sees how much is left.

"There's barely enough for one person!" he complains, and I smirk.

"Why don't you let Grandpa have it? He did cook dinner for us." I say, and Gary glares at me. Obviously sensing danger, Grandpa intervenes.

"No, no. I don't need any. You can have it, Gary." he says, picking up his knife and fork and slicing into one of his potatoes. Gary smiles gratefully at Grandpa and pours the remaining gravy over his food. He puts the now empty jug down and begins to eat. I follow suit, shoveling huge mouthfuls of potato, carrots and broccoli without cutting them first. Grandpa looks between me and Gary and sighs. I know he's comparing us, and his opinion of me is getting worse and worse, as Gary cuts his food into small pieces and chews slowly, whereas I just scoop up food on my fork and practically inhale it for all the chewing I do.

About half an hour passes before we are all finished eating. Grandpa takes the plates through to the kitchen before deciding to try yet again to convince me to become a Pokemon trainer. To help him persuade me, he brought out a couple of Pokemon he thought I would like.

"You really think I would want to own an Eevee?" I ask incredulously. "I'd rather just have Pokemon as friends, not because of their appearances or skills but because of their personalities." Gary snorts.

"Because you're so good at making friends." he says, shaking his head and smiling. I glare at him.

"I'm not friends with any people because I don't like people. I could make friends if I wanted." I say, and Gary nods slowly.

"Sure you could." he says, smirking, and gets up to leave the room, declaring that he's going to the toilet.

"What's the best way to make friends with people?" I ask Grandpa as soon as I'm sure Gary's out of earshot. Grandpa smiles as if he had been waiting for me to ask.

"Well, there is one thing that will make people find you much more interesting from the moment you meet them..." he begins, and I nod, signalling for him to continue. "Everyone loves a Pokemon trainer." I sigh.

"If it means I can prove Gary wrong and show him that I'm perfectly capable of making friends, then fine. I'll become a Pokemon trainer." I say dejectedly, and Grandpa beams.

"I knew you would give in one day!" he says cheerfully. "Which starter Pokemon would you like?"

"I'm fine with the two I've got now, thanks." I say.

"I'm sure I could have one transferred across by a Professor in another region..." Grandpa says, and I know he already knows what I want. I shake my head.

"I'm fine with what I've got." I say, and instantly regret it, because I've been desperate to have a Snivy for years.

"Okay, then. You can stick with your two. I see no problem with that." Grandpa says, still smiling. Gary comes back into the room.

"So you're a Pokemon trainer know?" he asks.

"How long were you standing outside the door for?" I ask, and Gary grins.

"The whole time. I didn't actually need the toilet, I just wanted to hear you ask Grandpa how to make friends, and there was no way you would do it if you thought I could hear." I pick up a cushion off the sofa and throw it at him. He chucks it back.

"Stop it, you two. You'll destroy my new cushions." Grandpa says, snatching the cushion back and placing it gently where I took it from. He glances at the clock. "You should probably head home now: it's getting late. I expect to see you here tomorrow, Korin, and you should be ready to start your journey." I nod and get up.

"Bye, Grandpa!" Gary and I say at exactly the same time as we leave the room and begin to walk home.

**A/N: Hey! Another chapter done. I'm actually kind of surprised at how quickly I've written this so far... I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

I walk downstairs, still in my pajamas, and enter the kitchen. Gary is leaning against the fridge, eating cereal. He looks up when I enter the room.

"Brush your hair." he orders as a greeting.

"No." When I speak, he glares at me.

"Do you not own a hairbrush?" he asks, and I glare back at him.

"I do, I just don't want to brush my hair. It takes too long." I lift up my frizzy, waist-length plait to illustrate my point.

"Maybe if you brushed it more often, it wouldn't be so messy and it wouldn't take as long," Gary says slowly, as if talking to a toddler. "Or, even better, get it cut!" I snort.

"Could you imagine me with short hair?" I ask, and Gary pauses for a minute or so.

"You would look... so much more stupid than you already do." he says and I smirk.

"You know that by saying I look stupid you're saying you look stupid, right? The only difference in our appearances is that your hair's smooth and mine's longer." I say, and Gary frowns.

"Just eat and then brush your hair. And put on some clothes that are actually clean, for once. You're starting your Pokemon journey today." he says, and I tilt my head back, groaning. Why, why, why did I agree to this?

I scarf down two bowls of Cheerios and three cups of black coffee (each with two and a half spoons of sugar) before sprinting back upstairs and having a shower. When I get out, I throw on my Samurai Panda t-shirt (what can I say? It's my favourite.) and a pair of tattered jeans and cover myself in bodyspray which makes me gag, but everyone else thinks smells wonderful. I unplait my hair and attempt to run my brush through it, though I give up and settle for just replaiting it.

"You didn't brush it." I turn and see Gary standing in the doorway, holding something behind his back. "You need to pack some essentials, like clean clothes and a sleeping bag." I nod and wrap a hairband around the end of my plait, leaving about an inch of frizzy titian hair beneath it. Gary chucks a rucksack at my head, but I catch it just before it collides with my face.

"Jerk." I say, and open my wardrobe door to take out the sleeping bag that has been in there for the past six years, since I decided I wanted to live in a treehouse in the garden. It lasted about a week. I shove the sleeping bag into the rucksack. I find the t-shirt I bought when Grandpa took me to see _The Phantom of the Opera_ last year, which has the show title and a picture of the Phantom's mask, with the dates the show was on written on the back, and fold it neatly (Gary gasps and pretends to die of shock), before sliding it into my bag. I grab a pair of grey canvas trousers that come to just below my knees and shove them into the bag, before pushing past Gary and going downstairs.

I enter the kitchen to get some food to take. I open the cupboard door and take out all the packets of dried fruit and putting them in my bag, and, checking that Gary isn't looking, also take all the beef jerky. To make sure that the snacks I take are representitive of a balanced diet, I also take four packets of salt and vinegar crisps and two of mixed vegetable crisps (they have dried carrots, beetroots and parsnips!). I open the fridge door and rummage around, finally finding the wheel of brie and two small goat's cheeses I had been saving.

"Your bag is going to smell so bad," Gary says from the door, and I turn. His nose is wrinkled in disgust. "You can't seriously be taking cheese. Geez, Korin. Even _you're_ not that weird!"

"I'm not weird. I'm perfectly normal." I say. "For myself, anyway." I add as an afterthought. Gary shakes his head, laughing.

"You ready to go?" he asks.

"Almost. I just need to get Cabhan and Christine." I reply, and run upstairs. I grab their Pokeballs and put them in my pocket before boucing back down to the kitchen. "Ready." I say to Gary, and I pick up my rucksack. It seems lighter than before, so I look inside. The cheese has been removed. I open the fridge and take the cheese back out, putting it back in my bag and glaring at Gary. He rolls his eyes as we walk to the door.

We leave the house, and Gary locks the door behind us. We walk in silence to Grandpa's house. Grandpa is standing outside the house, chatting with a boy with messy black hair who, judging by his size, is probably a year or so younger than me.

"Hey, Grandpa." Gary calls cheerfully, though his enthusiasm seems forced. Grandpa and the boy he's talking to look over at us, and the boy scowls. I glance at Gary and see that he is glaring daggers at the boy.

"You know that boy?" I ask Gary quietly.

"Most annoying moron ever. He's worse than you, I swear." he replies, and I know from the _worse than you_ that Gary and this boy really hate each other. I nod.

We reach Grandpa and the boy, and Grandpa pats me on the head.

"Do you realise how patronising you're being right now?" I ask him, and he removes his hand.

"I'm sorry, Korin. I'm just really happy that you've finally agreed to become a Pokemon trainer!" he says, and his excitement is clearly evident in his voice. He suddenly seems to realise that I don't know who the black-haired boy is. "Korin, this is Ash. He's about to continue his journey, and he's revisiting some of the Kanto region, so he's agreed to let you go with him. Ash, this is Korin." Ash frowns slightly.

"Why are you hanging out with Gary?" he asks me. I sigh.

"I'm unfortunate enough to have the freak as an older brother." I explain, and Ash looks stunned for a moment.

"That must suck." he says sympathetically, and I nod. "Are you ready to go? A couple of my friends are coming, and they're waiting for us at my place." I nod, then remember something.

"I forgot my iPod!" I whine, and Gary passes it to me.

"I knew you would forget it, and I also know how you get when you don't have music to escape into." he says, and I smile gratefully.

"Thanks," I say, then turn to Ash. "Let's go!" We're about to walk off when Grandpa places his hand on my shoulder.

"Korin, I have something for you." he says, and holds out a Pokeball.

"What? I have a load of spares already." I say, and Grandpa shakes his head.

"Open it." I take the Pokeball and hold it out to release whatever's inside. A Snivy comes out, and I can't help but squeal.

"Thank you, thank you, thank, you, thank you, thank you!" I scream, throwing my arms around Grandpa.

"What are you going to call it?" Gary asks, and I think for a moment. I have a name in mind for each gender.

"Depends," I say, then turn to Grandpa. "Is it a boy or girl?"

"He's a boy." Grandpa tells me.

"Then his name is Ladon." I say, opting for a mythology name. I call Ladon back into his Pokeball and put him in my pocket with Cabhan and Christine.

"Shall we go now?" Ash asks, and I nod. I say goodbye to Gary and Grandpa as Ash and I walk away towards Ash's house.

**A/N: Chapter three, complete! I hope you enjoyed it! I know it was quite a boring one, but they will get more exciting!**


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